STORRS — Few people outside the UConn football team’s locker room believe that the Huskies can pull an upset and beat No. 19 Tennessee at Neyland Stadium in Knoxville Saturday.
If odds lines are to be believed, few gamblers are confident that UConn can even keep it close. The Volunteers opened as a 30-point favorite on Monday but by Thursday the line had moved considerably to 36 points.
But as long as the game is played on a field and not in a casino or betting establishment, the Huskies will take their chances Saturday even if they seem slim.
“It just gets you more energized to play and the team will feed off that energy,” UConn nose tackle Dal’Mont Gourdine said. “It’s a big moment, so we’re going to treat it like a big moment and have fun playing football.
“We want to go out there and play our best, limit our mistakes. That’s what has killed us in some games. And we have to capitalize on their mistakes when we get the chance to. You’re still playing football at the end of the day.”
Kickoff is scheduled for noon.
UConn (1-7) was eliminated from bowl consideration by its 21-14 loss at Boston College on Oct. 28, the same day Tennessee (6-2) became bowl eligible with a 33-27 victory at Kentucky.
The Volunteers are coached by former Oklahoma quarterback and 2000 national champion Josh Heupel. UConn coach Jim Mora said he met Heupel while working for ESPN as an analyst for a Central Florida game while Heupel was coaching the Knights. They have not coached against each other
“Jim, I got to know a little bit while he was doing TV, covered some of our football games,” Heupel said on the weekly Southeastern Conference teleconference Wednesday per rockytopinsider.com. “He’s a guy that’s won a lot of football games at a lot of different levels and is a really good football coach. You can just see that in the growth of the program. I don’t think their record indicates how good of a football team they are.
“They’ve played a lot of close football games. This is a football team that you watch the tape, they play and they compete extremely hard. For us, having the ability to go out and play smart football, be extremely physical on both sides of the line of scrimmage … Special teams, it’s important we win that phase of the game. Those are the keys this week in my opinion.”
A capacity crowd of 101,915 is expected at Neyland Stadium for Tennessee’s homecoming game. The Huskies played in front of 109,639 a year ago when they went to Michigan.
The average crowd (home and away) for UConn’s eight games this season is 25,274.
“I’m confident that we’ll block all the distractions and focus on what’s important, that’s the 11 guys they line up and the 11 guys we line up,” Mora said.
Sixth-year senior quarterback Joe Milton III, the Most Valuable Player of Tennessee’s win over Clemson in the 2022 Orange Bowl, is completing 64.8 percent of his passes and has 13 touchdowns to only four interceptions. His top receiver is Squirrel White (44 receptions, 463 yards). The Volunteers’ running game is led by Jaylen Wright (102 carries, 713 yards) and their average of 221.8 yards per game ranks first in the SEC and seventh nationally. Their running backs have not lost a fumble in 257 carries on the season.
Middle linebacker Elijah Herring is Tennessee’s top tackler and the Volunteers rank sixth nationally with 3.62 quarterback sacks per game.
“They’re big, they’re fast, they’re physical, and they’re extremely talented,” Mora said. “How can we gain an advantage in the run game and pass game, is there someone we can take advantage of? Is there something we can do to cross them up? It’s the same thing every week. It doesn’t matter who your opponent is. They’re going to pose problems for you. This week just happens to be a really, really, really good defensive football team.
“Same thing offensively. What is their scheme? What do they focus on? What do they like to do against certain looks? Is there a weakness we can take advantage of? What are their tendencies? It’s kind of the same thing every week. This week we’re going against a big, fast, physical, talented football team that have little or no weakness.”
UConn struggled defensively to get Boston College off the field as the Eagles had possession for more than 40 minutes. Still, the Huskies were within a touchdown when Noe Ruelas missed a 54-yard field goal with 6:44 left. UConn, though, did not get the ball back.
After completing 74.5 percent of his passes in back-to-back games against Utah State and Rice, UConn quarterback Ta’Quan Roberson has hit on 51.7 percent of his passes in losses to South Florida and Boston College and was under 50.0 percent (11 for 24) against the Eagles.
Roberson will be making his seventh consecutive start Saturday. Before that he had made one start (UConn’s 2022 opener at Utah State when he left in the second possession with a season-ending knee injury) since graduating high school.
“Physically, it feels like I’m going through a football season,” Roberson said with a smile. “I’m just blessed. There’s nothing significant. So I’ll keep attacking rehab and treatment. I’m feeling great.”
UConn reportedly will receive $1.8 million for making the trip to Knoxville.
While the Huskies have no bowl game to look forward to, they say they have a lot to play for in November.
“I want to win football games,” Roberson said. “That’s basically it. Whatever we have to do, whatever I have to do, to win these next four games we’ll do.”
2023-11-03 09:01:34
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